Are you struggling to use Shotcut? Maybe your computer is lagging whenever you press the play button, or maybe it struggles to even load the files into Shotcut. There are quite a few good features built into Shotcut that allows you to overcome these issues. In this post we look close at the preview pane, and more specifically how to scale the preview pane in Shotcut.
Performance issues (i.e. lagging, choppy, bumpy playback) in any video editor can be frustrating. It can be annoying and make you want to quit editing. Unfortunately there is never an ‘easy’ fix as quite often its specific to your computers setup. This includes the programs you have installed and the videos you are trying to use in the editor. With so many variables it can be hard to troubleshoot.
One of the more simple solutions is lowering the quality of the preview pane in Shotcut. In reality, if you are experiencing major issues, this is unlikely to help a great deal, but if you are just finding it hard because its a little laggy, than this may be the answer you are looking for!
There are also a number of other things you can try to help your performance, such as use a Proxy – look out for this video coming soon! However, start with the simple changes to see if that sufficient for you. Follow these steps to enable the feature in Shotcut:
Preview Pane in Shotcut
- Open Shotcut
- Click onto Setting tab at the top of the screen
- Hover over Preview Scaling in the dropdown
- Select the quality of the preview pane you want to use.
Personally, I use 360p – the lowest quality. Not because I need to, but it allows the computer to work effortlessly, whereas in full quality it can be much slower, especially when working with larger video clips.
Bear in mind that the scaling down of the preview pane does not effect the exporting of your video. If you export using 1080p or 4k, it will still export at the quality you expect. It is just the preview pane that is effected by this method, allowing you to edit in a faster and smoother way.
Fore more information and video editing guides check out my YouTube Channel and other Blog Posts:
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIe7reTeELQIrh3cOQWM1Vg